Exodus 34:6-7

6 The Lord passed in front of Moses, calling out, “Yahweh! The Lord! The God of compassion and mercy! I am slow to anger and filled with unfailing love and faithfulness.

7 I lavish unfailing love to a thousand of generations. I forgive iniquity, rebellion, and sin. But I do not excuse the guilty. I lay the sins of the parents upon their children and grandchildren; the entire family is affected – even children in the third and fourth generations.”

Lifting Off Our Sins, Transgressions, and Iniquity

The unfailing love that God gives to all generations of humanity is the same that we discussed in Part 4 of this series. What we’re talk about here is how God is forgiving. God forgives three things: iniquities (moral perversity), transgressions (rebellion against God’s law); and sins (missing the mark against God’s standards.) Here’s an example that you may be familiar with:

• Sin – your parent lies to you to cover a mistake they made
• Transgression – your parents continue to lie to you, even thought they know it’s wrong.
• Iniquity – dishonesty becomes so common that it’s changes how everyone behaves.

God forgives everything from the wrongful act, to the intentional disobedience, to the corrupted pattern. Forgiveness is the Hebrew noun nasa’ (naw-saw). God teaches that He will life these burdens away so that our souls that can be made right. Overall, the Israelites would have practiced this forgiveness process through the sacrificial system. Forgiveness describes an active removal of their sins to a place where it can no longer reach us. For us, we are called to forgive others in the same way that God forgives us.

REFLECTION CHECKPOINT: How do you see forgiveness from God in your life? How do you express that forgiveness to others?

Matthew 26:28 – Jesus Changes The Path of Forgiveness

Jesus shows us this forgiving power in Matthew 26:28, which says:

28 for this is my blood, which confirms the covenant between God and his people. It is poured out as a sacrifice to forgive the sins of many.

The Old Testament covenants suggests that blood was a key element in certifying agreement between God and His people. Jesus makes this covenant personal and sacrificial. This new covenant becomes written on the hearts of all believers. The blood being poured out evokes a covenant renewal and the depth of God’s love, harkening back to the sacrificial systems in the Old Testament where the blood was poured over the altar for atonement. Christ’s blood being shed will be for all people. In the Old Testament, forgive came through the sacrificial system in a ritualistic pattern, which would later point toward fuller covenant restoration. Christ’s sacrifice opened a lasting covenant of forgiveness and transformed belonging. This forgiveness restores the relationship between God and humanity.

REFLECTION CHECKPOINT: How does the differences between the Old Testament and New Testament show up to you?

Inclusive Forgiveness

The sacrifice that Christ made extends to all believers. This is something that I’ve witnessed the church struggle with, especially as of late via the rise in Christian nationalism. With the various divisive conversations that happen within the church, including but not limited to, human sexuality, gender identities, inclusivity, wealth inequality, racial reconciliation, and more. These things can create intense discussions and arguments between Christians in how the paths to approach these topics. The sad reality of this is that a lot of us want to see the same end result, but our approaches to get there can be polar opposites that we tend to share judgment instead of kindness, criticism instead of compassion, and arguments instead of mercy.

We’ll ostracize people away from the community. We’ll publicly demean them because their opinions, lifestyles, and beliefs are “too woke” or “too conservative.” This has created much harm, anger, and violence within churches, religious communities, and relationships. It has even cost people their own lives because of the intensity of these debates. Instead of creative an environment that separates us, we need to be united. We need to work together on a path that grants us healthy conversations, plans of action, and community building so that we can ensure that all people, both believers and not, have equal rights to life and paths to achieve it. We cannot create rules and systems based on our own beliefs, but the greater beliefs of God that focus on love, mercy, and justice. We are not the divine judge. We are not the ones that will see people at the gates of heaven. We are flawed people in need of a rescuer to cleanse and restore us. This can only happen through a relationship with God, and faith in the sacrificial act of Jesus. We must work to get things right with God, and extend that same mercy to those that may have done us wrong. It’s time we remove the burdens that we, and society, have placed on one another. It’s time to create the environment and lifestyle that was shown to us through Christ.

REFLECTION CHECKPOINT: When you think of the cycle of harm that has happened to you directly or indirectly, how do you see forgiveness happening? How can the greater world take on an attitude of forgiveness too?